Cork Course Guide

Cork Racecourse first opened in Mallow (35km north of Cork City) in 1924. Race meetings are held there throughout the year under both Flat and National Hunt rules, staging a total of 18 fixtures every year.

Mallow is a very appropriate location for a racecourse, as it was just a few miles down the road that the first ever “steeplechase” took place, with Edmund Blake and Cornelius O'Callaghan racing each other on horseback from the church at Buttevant to the church at Doneraile in 1752.

Cork Racecourse boasts two Group 3 races on the Flat, namely the Munster Oaks which takes place in June and the Give Thanks Stakes which takes place in August. It hosts a total of six Graded races under National Hunt rules, most notably the Grade 2 Hilly Way Chase which has been won by the likes of Beef Or Salmon (twice) and Golden Silver (three times) in recent years.

A flat, right-handed, oval track with a ten-furlong inner circuit and a twelve furlong outer circuit. It is a relatively fair track in character. A chute of two furlongs allows races over five and six furlongs to be run on a straight course.

Cork is a flat track that suits pace horses. From the mile-and-a-half start, a low draw is a big help as they start quite close to the bend. In general, it is difficult to make up ground on the round track and horses that can make the running or be prominent are favoured. On the sprint track, high numbers are best when the ground is quick, but when it is softer the draw isn’t an issue as they can come up all parts of the track and be competitive. Mind, when the ground is quick, it can be a nightmare for a hold-up horse to be drawn high, as they tend to stay very compressed up against the stand rail and getting a run can be a big problem.

View from the saddle: Mick Kinane

A right-handed, flat, oval track with a chase circuit of one and a half miles and two hurdle circuits, the inner one around one and a quarter miles round. The track is level and galloping in character without favouring any particular type of horse. There are eight fences to a circuit of the chase course, with three in the four-furlong home straight and a run-in of around one furlong.

A fair track that is good and galloping. I always thought it favoured those that were prominently placed over jumps there, as it is so flat that those in front don’t come back like they do on stiffer tracks. The fences are grand, but they can give a little bit of trouble. In terms of the ground, it never gets too deep there and horses that don’t want it testing can get away with it there during the winter. The track is regularly flooded by the adjoining river, so I presume the silt from the river has made the soil quite sandy and it drains very well as a result.